A hero police dog, who spent all his working life in Bradford, has died after enjoying retirement with his handler.

Zeus, who was 11, had spent a life of leisure with former PC Mark Lawman after retiring two years ago. PC Lawman retired a year later.

The pair had worked as a team in Bradford, based at Eccleshill police station, from 2004, when Zeus was aged two, until 2011.

They found fame on local TV, which followed Zeus during his working day in Bradford, and nationally when the German Shepherd and his handler demonstrated body armour they had to use.

Mr Lawman said one of Zeus’s finest moments was at the start of his career when he was responsible for bringing armed robbers to book.

His proud owner said: “There had been a robbery at a newsagents shop in Windhill, Shipley. Zeus had only been out working on the streets for a couple of weeks. He tracked the robber from the shop, down some concrete steps, over the road, and across waste ground where he found a big piece of wood which had been used as a weapon in the robbery.

“Then he found a Halloween mask which the robber had thrown away. It had DNA on it which matched that found on the fence post, which had been ripped from the robber’s own fence.

“It resulted in a very good conviction from nothing, and a substantial custodial sentence. He would not have been found without Zeus.”

Mr Lawman added: “Zeus worked hard and was successful, with a substantial amount of arrests. But he was very amenable and liked being fussed over, so we visited a lot of elderly residents’ homes in Bradford and Keighley, and a lot of schools.

“After his retirement he came and lived with us at our house and had a very different sort of life. He was chilled and soon got out of work mode and was quite happy to saunter round.

“He was a wonderful servant and companion and will be sadly missed.”